


Spider Lord of the Flies

by Goose_Goddess



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: AUideas Advent Calendar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 15:49:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12915102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goose_Goddess/pseuds/Goose_Goddess
Summary: Prompt: After barely getting the signature of their supervising professor, Character A has been given clearance to hold their “Lord of the Flies”-esque experiment, wherein several experimentees would be placed in a room with food and water for seven days and monitored carefully.It was very controversial, but the experiment began and ended seemingly without an issue – the only thing that Character A and their labmates didn’t realize upon releasing the LotB group from their captivity on the final day of the experiment was that, well, one of the experimentees was missing.





	Spider Lord of the Flies

**Author's Note:**

> un beta'd, unedited, speed writing.  
> Sorry!

Peter looked over the article. That was the fifth student that had disappeared from campus this semester, and the semester was barely over. He sighed and leaned back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. His investigation hadn’t turned up anything, and Shield refused to get involved. Said too many students just drop out and vanish for them to believe five leaving such a large college was a sign of sinister activity. But something told him that things weren’t right. It was too vague to be his spideysense, but something was just…off about the disappearances. Maybe it was because everyone of them was a tall, well built blond male. Or maybe it was because everyone of them had signed up to participate in a Psych test before they disappeared. He’d checked out all the tests, though, and every student had made it through and was seen going home after the test finished. They just…never made it to their classes the next day. Or showed up again.

In frustration he grabbed his hair and groaned. He needed to do something. 

“What’s the drama baby boy.” Wade turned away from the game he was playing and looked at Peter. “You sound way to grouchy for someone with no homework.”

“It’s these disappearances.” Peter replied, dropping his hands into his lap. “I need to do something. But the only thing I see that they have in common is that they all look similar, and all of them signed up for a Psych test.”

Wade grunted. “What do they look like?”

“Tall. Strong. Blond. All male.” Peter picked up the article and looked at the picture of the latest student to disappear.

“So, we sign me up for the experiment and see what happens.” Wade said. 

“You? No!” Peter yelped. “You hate experiments. I’m not going to let you do that. But that’s a great idea. I can volunteer. Just need to change my hair color.”

Wade turned at looked at Peter. “Nothing can happen to me. You don’t know what is happening to these guys, and I can take anything. You can’t.” He snorted. “Besides, you’re not what anyone would call strong looking.”

Peter scoffed. “I’m stronger than you.”

“Yeah, but you sure don’t look it. Not that I don’t absolutely adore your svelte physique, you’re just more the gymnast than the lifter.”

Peter sighed. “But you hate tests and hospitals and…”

Wade shrugged. “Hey. We heroes have to do the tough jobs, right.”

Peter nodded. “I guess. But…”

“Now all we need is to get me signed up.”

* * * * *

Peter, with a little help from Jarvis, managed to get Wade listed as a student at the college. Then they signed him up for the next Psych test running. Peter tried to get himself on the list of monitors for the test, but they were limited to actual Psych students, and there was no way he’d convince the profs that he’d been a psych student all along. So he settled for putting trackers on Wade. 

The test started on a Friday and ran through the weekend. Apparently it was some variation of the Lord of the Flies test—take a random group of people, put them in a room with no rules, and limited food and drink. Then see what happened. Of course, being a college Psych test, no one was supposed to actually get hurt, and the group was monitored continually. But from previous groups, it could get a little intense.

Wade showed up Friday afternoon with the rest of the volunteers—a total of 20—at the test location. It was going to take place in an abandoned warehouse not too far from campus. The building had food and water hidden in it, in limited quantities. All the rooms were monitored, and all the exits were alarmed. The group was expected to stay in the building until dismissed on Monday morning.

Peter had arrived earlier in his suit, and watched from the roof as the group was told what was going to happen, then stripped down to their underwear and sent into the building, with the door locked behind them.

He checked his phone screen. The signal from Wade’s tracker was still strong. He sighed, then settled down to watch. They’d agreed that he’d check in with Wade through a window on the second floor twice a day to see if anything was going on. He had hours until 11, when their first check in was. He waited for what felt like ages, before he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to sit there until 11 and went to at least patrol while he waited.

11 came and he was back at the building, looking through the designated window. Wade stood on the other side and gave him a thumbs up. He nodded, and swung off to patrol a bit more before getting some sleep. He’d be back at 6 to check again.

But at 6, Wade didn’t show up. Nor did he show up at 11 that night. His tracker showed he was still inside the building, but for some reason he couldn’t get to the window. Peter tried to keep from panicking—there were several reasons Wade couldn’t get to the window; maybe someone had been following him. 

Finally, the next morning at 6, Peter saw Wade through the window. But when Wade looked out the window and saw him, he didn’t give a thumbs up. In fact, he looked shocked and started yelling. Peter swung away immediately. Several buildings away he landed on a roof and started thinking. 

Wade would have let him know if the plan had changed. According to the tracker he was still in the building, but that guy… Had that even been Wade? He’d looked about right, and was wearing the right clothes, but thinking back Peter realized his spideysense had been going crazy the whole time he’d been looking through the window. Wade never set it off. So what was going on? The experiment had 24 hours left to run. But what if they’d grabbed Wade and put someone else that looked like him in there? Could he wait 24 hours? Could he even do anything right now?

After debating with himself, he decided he had no choice. He couldn’t leave Wade in there for another day. Not if he wasn’t actually in that building. Not if… He shut that thought down quickly and swung rapidly for Stark Tower.

Half an hour of explaining to Tony Stark with some input from Jarvis, and he found himself in Starks lab while the man ran what appeared to be twenty different applications. He tried to wait patiently, but found himself unable to sit still. Stark finally yelled at him to go find some backup for when he located the merc. Grateful for something to do, Peter searched through the tower looking for help. He knew Clint and Bucky would help. To his surprise, when he was explaining the situation to them, both Natasha and Steve agreed to help. 

“Mister Spiderman.” Jarvis announced. “We have found him.”

“Let’s go then.” Steve said. “Suit up everyone.”

Stark had located Wade in a former Shield base that had been abandoned, and was apparently now under Hydra’s control. 

Taking control of a building was both easier and harder without Wade, Peter discovered. On the one hand, he didn’t need to remind any of his teammates that they couldn’t kill. On the other, he couldn’t relax. Especially after they passed the first room with two of the missing students strapped down and connected to wires and tubes. 

He was getting frantic, when Natasha finally yelled to him that they’d found the merc.

They’d clearly figured out the Merc wasn’t just a student after they’d grabbed him. He was in a secure room, with steel walls and a solid steel door. He was clearly drugged, and barely moving.

Peter looked at Wade. Then took a deep breathe. “Okay. I’m going to unstrap him them remove all the tubes and cables and crap. When he wakes up, he may panic. Everyone else should get out of here.”

Natasha frowned. “Don’t you think it would be better if we left Steve or Tony in here with him? I don’t think you should be in here when he wakes. I don’t know if you know how he can get in a situation like this.”

Peter shook his head. “He won’t hurt me. And if he’s not hooked up to all this crap, he won’t panic as much. And I’ll stay right by the door.”

Natasha nodded. “Okay.” And the others all walked out.

Peter removed all the restraints, then quickly disconnected and the wires, and finally pulled the needle out of Wade’s arm. Then he quickly retreated to the door and waited.

Several minutes later, he could tell the drugs were leaving Wades system. His breathing became rougher and he started thrashing. The he suddenly was on his feet with a murderous look on his face, growling in anger and reaching for his katanas. Which, fortunately, weren’t there. 

“Hey Wade. I’m here.” Peter said. His spideysense wasn’t going off, but it was still hard to believe that the absolutely furious merc was safe. “Wade. Can you hear me? That guy in the building didn’t look enough like you so we went searching. And we found you, and the others. They seem to be okay, so I think we managed to rescue them. And Cap and IronMan both say they’ll take care of the bunch at the college.” He kept talking in a calm voice, telling Wade about seeing the Wade lookalike, but how he hadn’t walked right, and hadn’t given him a thumbs up.

“Spidey?” Wade said suddenly, looking over at the red clad figure. 

“Yep. It’s me. Ready to go home?” Peter asked.

“Yeah.” Wade replied.


End file.
